The Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development (CEED) extends deep sympathy and solidarity with victims and survivors of the 6.9 magnitude Cebu earthquake. The entirety of the past week has been a nightmare for our fellow Filipinos in the Central Visayas, with over 70 deaths and more still unaccounted for, over 160,000 displaced families, and over 8,000 aftershocks recorded as of date. 

CEED echoes calls for urgent action toward the recovery of impacted communities, and the speedy and responsible use of public funds for their well-being amid the scandalous corruption issues embroiling the country. At the same time, we urge our government to take this disaster as a reminder of the need for policy and development directions that strengthen, rather than harm, the resilience of Filipinos from calamities. 

To this end, we are dismayed to see the Department of Energy (DOE) and other government offices acting blind to our country’s high disaster and climate vulnerability with their active promotion of nuclear energy use. The earthquake is a tragic reminder of the precarious geographic position of the Philippines, it being located along the Pacific Ring of Fire. One would recall that Japan’s experience of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami resulted in the meltdown of a reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant – the vicinity of which remains irradiated and unfit for human habitation today.

Given the perennial risk of earthquakes in the Philippines, compounded by intensifying climate risks, there is simply no safe place in the country for a nuclear power facility. Newly confirmed energy Secretary Sharon Garin, who hails from the Visayas, would know that the Cebu earthquake is but one example of the many perennial disasters, geological or otherwise, that strike the region and the country as a whole. 

The entire value chain for nuclear energy courts risks at every point. With no viable uranium reserves, the Philippines would have to import nuclear fuel – which would also put communities and workers at  risk of disaster during transportation. To date, there also remains no permanently safe mode of disposal or storage of nuclear waste anywhere on the planet.

New nuclear technologies such as small modular reactors (SMRs) are also all still unproven technologies. SMRs have too many risks to their supply chains, with SMR projects being too expensive and too slow to build to be viable for decarbonization. Renewable energy, in contrast, is safer, more reliable, quicker to set up, and more cost-effective in its investment. 

On October 2, thousands of Filipinos took part in the National Day of Action Against Coal and Gas with prayer walks, masses, discussions, and symbolic actions across the country – including in Cebu. Bracing the aftermath of the deadly earthquake, multi-sectoral groups from Cebu took to the DOE Visayas office to stand for their right to clean, affordable, safe, and reliable energy. The DOE and all bodies of government responsible for our energy sector – including the President himself – must listen to these calls.

The global climate crisis and national energy demands require rapid strategies and proven means to ambitiously cut greenhouse gas emissions while providing a better quality of life for the Filipino people. Nuclear energy is a false solution to our power woes and a major detour to a full transition to renewable energy, which scientific analyses have already proven to be possible for the Philippines.